No Other Lifetimes..

Occasionally in life we’re faced with choices of serious import. Can you mentally review your life and come up with the decisions you made which had the most impact on your life? Friends you’ve made, decisions about your education, employment opportunities, relationships? Or have the decisions with the greatest impact on your life been what you thought at the time were small inconsequential decisions which later led to events you never imagined?

In truth good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. We make decisions every minute of every day, so many that we often pass over those of the most importance without cognizant consideration.

So when a decision you know is going to be important comes along, and within limits you have all the time in the world to think about it, how do you choose? This my friends is where your priorities in life define your character.

You choose by that which is most important to you. Money, sex, career, good times, are all powerful motivators. For some the only motivators. Forgive me for not believing these motivators are on the top of the list for those of ‘good’ character. These all focus on the individual. There is much more.

Priorities which focus on others, even if at the expense of self, are most often the priorities of someone with good character. God, country, family, friends, the list of selfless priorities is long.

As individuals we must learn to balance the self and selfless motivators to build our lives and this in turn defines our character. We need to take care of ourselves, but we’re obligated through God, country, family, friends.. to take care of others.

Years ago I was sitting on a seawall in Yomitan and had just arrived at this point in my decision making process. It was right then when an old Japanese man walking past stopped and looked straight at me. He didn’t look through me, he looked in me. And then he said in Japanese:

“There are no other lifetimes but this one..”

And he turned and kept walking. I never saw him again.

I took this to mean that we most often only get one chance to make the right decisions, so we’d better prioritize the priorities.